Sargon II

Sargon II (765 BC-705 BC) was King of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 722 BC to 705 BC, succeeding Shalmaneser V and preceding Sennacherib.

Biography
Sargon was born in Kalhu, Assyria in 765 BC, the son of Tiglath-Pileser III and Yaba. Sargon seized power from his brother Shalmaneser V in a violent coup in 722 BC, and his accession to the throne was met with several rebellions, including Marduk-apla-iddina II's Babylonian uprising in 721 BC, which allowed for him to reign as King of Babylon for ten years. In 717 BC, he crushed the Hittite city-state of Carchemish after it rebelled against his rule, using the wealth seized to fund his army. In 716 BC, he conquered Izirtu from the Mannaeans, and he also led a successful campaign against Urartu in 714 BC. He defeated King Rusa I at Uaush, felled the Urartian orchards and destroyed the harvest, plundered the Urartian kings' wine cellar at the royal resort of Ulhu, and destroyed 430 empty villages. After the sack of the Urartian temple at Musasir, Rusa I fell on his own sword. In 713 BC, he stayed at home as his troops took Karalla, Tabal, and Cilicia, while the Persians and the Medes were forced to offer tribute to him, Gurgum was conquered in 711 BC, and Philistia became an Assyrian province after an uprising in Ashdod was crushed. Ashdod then took Samaria from the United Kingdom of Israel after a three-year siege, leading to the "Ten Lost Tribes". In 710 BC, Sargon launched a campaign against the Babylonians,  but he agreed to peace with the rebels. That same year, the seven Greek kings of Cyprus accepted Assyrian sovereignty, and King Midas of Phrygia submitted to Assyrian rule in 709 BC; a year later, Commagene became an Assyrian province. In 705 BC, he was killed while campaigning against rebels in Tabal, and he was succeeded by his son Sennacherib.